SpielByWeb

[Gaditus]

I have been toying with the idea of a variant tournament with less money for some time.

A first thought was to state that only 10 say gold can be spent and 10 must be kept for the whole game. The problem is one I found with an early variant which disallowed sacrifices is that it was too easy to forget in the middle of the game. Even giving a points penalty for breaking the rule didn't really work as the breaking of the rule 'messed it up' for the other players who were relying on correct play.

Moving on, I thought, it may not be too difficult to remember the rule if it only effects round 1, auction stage. Then an obvious way to reduce avaialble gold would be to make all bids in round one start at say 10 gold. The problem with this is that it would give a significant advantage to the first (few) player(s) depending on which provinces appear.

My next idea was to set an initial starting price for each province, say 6/10/15 depending how valuable it was. However this still favours the first player(s) and takes away the first auction round.

So my 'solution' is to make the minimum bid for the camel provinces and Abu 15. Clearly they are overpriced, but they are likely to be the best provinces in this variant and the point is that you don't have to buy them as long as you bid enough on the other available provinces to make it worthwhile for someone else to pay 15.

I have chosen 4 provinces to be reasonably sure that at least one of the 15 cost provinces is available (I think there will not be one about 1 in 50 times), in a 5 player game.

So ... please sign up here.

I am waiting on 3 games to start season two of the 5 player league (and if they do not finish soon, I will predict the results for promotion/relegation purposes) so I will wait until that is up and running before starting this variant tourney.

In the meantime I have set up a couple of practice games to test it out.

The games are Money 1/2 and the password is Money if anyone would like to join me.

[fatguyinalittlecoat]

I signed up for the practice games. The minimum bid rule is only applicable for Round 1, right?

[Gaditus]

[smlait]

Berenike's not considered as valuable as Abu or a camel province in the first round? (That question may explain why I'm not great at Amun Re.)

[Gaditus]

[Gaditus]

On reflection I have decided to include Berenike in the provinces which will cost 15 - as luck would have it Berenike has come up in both the test games.

[rico44]

I believe I've paid 10 for Berenike in a normal game before, but it generally seems to harsh to spend 15 on it in the first round because you have to wait to get all the money back, same with the camels. I guess the difference here is that you are forced to directly compare whether you want to A.) try to get away with spending not much or B.) bag a camel / etc. for 15 straight off because you know the fight will be hot for the non-camel type provinces

Certainly interesting.

[Gaditus]

If anyone else wishes to have a trial game just set one up, say Money 3/4/5 etc password Money and I am sure there will be joiners - I will join some.

[daveszum]

I set up Money 5A (password - Money). Not exactly sure of the rules but a practice game is a good way to find out. If I understand correctly, it is exactly like a normal game except that, on the first turn, one must bid a high amount on the top 4 money generating provinces (Abu, Sawu, Berenike, and the other big camel province).

[Knave]

[daveszum]

Oh yeah, and please sign me up for the tournament.

[Gaditus]

[Gaditus]

[Rebelslayer]

How bout making it that if nobody has bid 15 yet for a province, the last player must outbid rather than taking the last bid on province etc ... until someone bids 15?

That picks up tose games where there are none of the expensive provinces and forces those going early to work out how best to not get saddled with bidding 15 a bit later ...

[Gaditus]